Deana Garner, SDL, Joins Compete Sports Diversity’s Leadership Board

Deana Garner, SDL, Arizona State University’s (ASU) Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Deputy Title IX Officer, recently accepted an invitation to become a member of Compete Sports Diversity’s Leadership Board. This follows on the heels of last fall’s powerful partnership between Compete and Garner to hold a Compete Sports Diversity Summit on Women in Sports and Events held at ASU.

Hired by ASU Athletics in 2015 as its senior woman administrator and senior associate athletic director, Garner’s current role at ASU ensures that student-athletes, staff, coaches and Sun Devil administrators behave in ways that align with the NCAA’s DEI and Title IX standards. Additionally, she also oversees all 26 sports as senior associate AD.

An athlete who played club soccer and softball (although she says she wasn’t very good), she attended Dillard University, an HBU in New Orleans and later earned a Doctor of Jurisprudence from Indiana University School of Law at Indianapolis in 1991. Garner began her legal career as a deputy prosecutor with Indiana’s Marion County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office in its Domestic Violence Unit, eventually becoming the supervisor.

From 1996-1998, Garner worked as staff council for the Indiana Gaming Commission, teaming with Indiana law enforcement to conduct background checks on Indiana Riverboat occupational licensees. She also drafted rules of play for table games and assisted the Commission in the review and approval of riverboat gambling-related activities that were marketed and offered to the public.

When the NCAA moved to Indianapolis in 1999, with her gambling policy experience and knowledge, Garner accepted a position with the NCAA’s Enforcement Services Agent, Gambling and Amateurism Activities department where she provided education regarding NCAA gambling policies to student-athletes, coaches and administrators.

Following her nine years with the NCAA, Garner moved to New York City in 2008 to work for the NFL in their Securities Department. Working with all 32 NFL teams (more than 1,600 players) around the NFL, she was primarily responsible for implementing and coordinating educational programs for NFL players and staff. In 2014, Deana partnered her background in law enforcement and educational programming to organize and lead the NFL’s Domestic Violence education efforts.

Wanting to broaden her work within athletics beyond professional football, ironically it was through her NFL experiences with then vice president of Football Operations, Ray Anderson that led Garner to apply at ASU in 2015. Today she acts as VP of Arizona State University Athletics.

One of her current goals is to implement sports diversity leadership training, a service offered by Compete, into ASU athletics for coaches, staff and student-athletes. Referring to herself as a mentor rather than a teacher or coach, Garner also actively promotes Compete Sports Diversity, noting that Compete is doing work many people and organizations throughout the greater Phoenix area need to know about. •